Christmas in Zanzibar

We were in Zanzibar for Christmas. After our work on Uzi Island we took a few days off to relax. For Christmas day we hired a boat and went snorkeling for the afternoon.  Blue skies, blue seas, white sand and tropical fish, a great way to spend Christmas and somewhat different to a normal Irish Christmas.

Blue Sky, Blue Sea, White Sand!

Christmas Day in Zanzibar

Camping in Nairobi

Originally we planned to travel south from Addis Ababa overland to Kenya but due to a combination of people advising us against it and a lack of time we decided to fly. The project we were working on in Tanzania was starting sooner than expected and while it was in Tanzania it was only a 6 hour bus ride from Nairobi. As we flew down we had a few days to spare so we decided to spend the time camping in Karen close to the Nairobi National Park.


After the time in Addis Ababa, Nairobi was a surprise, everyone speaks English and the city is very similar to most European cities although with an increased additional security presence. For the original overland trip from Ethiopia I had got the lightest 2 person tent that I could find in Dublin or London. Camping in Nairobi would be our first time to use it, the problem was our rucksacks were bigger than the tent. Luckily we were staying at a campsite so we were able to store our luggage securely inside.

Worlds Smallest Tent

Most people staying at the campsite had their own transport and the rare few who didn't took taxis everywhere. We planned on taking local transport but it took sometime to convince the staff at the campsite to explain where we could find the local buses (known as matatus). They got commission for the taxis and organised but none for public transport! The busses in Kenya are called Matatus, small Toyota hiaces that stop anywhere along the road to drop-off and pickup passengers. A typical journey costs about 20 shillings which is about 20cent. The other alternative to taxis is motorbike taxis, these are cheap, available on almost every corner and great at getting through Nairobi's traffic.

We spent a few days traveling around using a combination of both Matatus and moto-taxis. The first stop was the Giraffe center, a non-profit organization started in 1979 in an effort to save the endangered Rothschild Giraffe of which there were only 130 left in the wild. Today the population in Kenya is 300. The giraffe centre has a feeding platform where you can get close to the Giraffes.

Giraffe Centre at Nairobi National Park

Next stop was the elephant orphanage, getting here by matatu was more difficult. We took a matatu to the one of the park gates and from here we had to walk through the park to the sanctuary. The walk was great as we passed lots of baboons on the way, although later when we were at the park and there was a lion nearby it was a little worrying.

Baboons on the way to the orphanage

The orphanage is run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and open daily to tourists for one hour. I spent a few days volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand a few years back, during which time I was taking care of an elephant, getting up at 4am to feed and wash him. I had never seen African Elephants before nor had I seen so many baby elephants in one place!

Baby Elephant drinking

Elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

At the end of the street where I was staying in Addis Ababa there was always a security guard sitting. One morning I was passing he had left his seat and gone to talk to someone. I took a quick photo of his chair that was missing 2 legs and was tied to a tree for stability.

Recycled chair in Addis Ababa

Life in the Afar

Soon after arriving the village leader came over to meet us. At this stage I didn't understand any Afar so communication was difficult but no more difficult than the language barrier was in Russian, China or Vietnam. After a few minutes he took us to the village restaurant for injera, a flatbread with a spongy texture, typical of Ethiopian cuisine followed by an Ethiopian Coffee ceremony. I never got around to taking a photo of injera when I was in the Afar but I took the following photo a few weeks later when I was eating at a restaurant in Addis Ababa.

Injera in Ethiopia

The food was good, the coffee great, everyone was friendly and somewhat curious. We returned here almost every afternoon for injeria and coffee. Later in the week one of the children was using my camera and took the following photo without us knowing.

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony in the Afar

Life in the Afar was good, slow-paced, peaceful and without phones, laptops and the Internet time was soon forgotten. Wake up when the sun comes out and go to bed soon after it gets dark, eat when hungry all pretty simple. We were lucky, the guys who gave us a lift to the village offered to take us fresh water everyday. They were running a cotton farm close to the village and were traveling back and forth daily. The alternative (which I was prepared for) was a 3km walk to the river to collect muddy water to use for drinking and cooking.
We still made daily trips to the river to wash as we there is no water in the village. Prior to my arrival there had been rumors of crocodiles in the river but this hadn't deterred anyone from washing in the river. The first day we went to the river to wash there were a few crocodiles on the bank opposite! 

Watch out for the Croc!

Our home was a mud hut on the end of the village. We had mosquito tent to keep the bugs out. Breakfast was normally oats, powdered milk and sugar. Lunch injera, popcorn and coffee and then in the evenings we'd cook. This involved collecting firewood, preparing and cooking in the dark. The first few days we had the vegetables we'd taken with us from Awash but they didn't last long in the heat and it's not possible to buy any in the village so the vegetables in our last few meals were soggy beetroots and carrots!

Our home in the Afar

The days filled themselves very fast, time seemed to fly by and one day blended into the next. It's quite a difficult experience to describe and I'm not sure that my photos to it an justice either. In one way the photos maybe misleading, this village is the safest and most peaceful place that I've ever visited yet as an outsider looking at my photos you may think very differently.
For example the reason the children have guns is for protection from animals and neighboring tribes. The children leave the home around 6am and do not return until evening. The spend the day herding their families herds to pasture miles and miles away form the village. Should the herd get attacked by a wild animal the children need to be able to protect themselves and their herd.

A child returning with the herd in late afternoon

We were accepted into an amazing community so far untouched by tourism, not only were we accepted into the community but we became part of it in a very short time. It's quite an experience to visit such a unique and rare community,  I doubt there are many places like this left in the world. There's something very special about the village, the people and also a rare innocence associated with it. Later on our first day there we were invited into a neighbors house for a cup of buna. It's a local brew made from river water, milk, salt and sugar. It's quite a big deal to be invited into someones home to share buna with their family so it would be very disrespectful to refuse or not to drink it. We were both handed a cup of buna, mine had some dust and a fly floating in it. Anna whispered to me, its probably going to make you sick but you'll have to drink it. Turns out I quite liked buna and ended up helping Anna finish hers on a few occasions. Although you had to be very careful about how fast you drank it, you didn't want to drink too slow but if you drank too fast you'll soon get another cup!


The reason we were there was due to Anna's involvement with the Barefoot Initiative, an Australian based NGO. If you are interested in donating to the Barefoot Initiative to help fund their continued work in the Afar you find details of how to donate on their website. Part of my contribution to the initiative was doing an art project with the community during our stay. I'll explain more about the art project in a future blog post. The art project was a pretty amazing and rewarding experience. As far as we could determine there wasn't a word in Afar for paint and most people have never seen paint before. Originally we planned on doing painting with the children but soon the adults and elders were getting involved as well. People would drop by daily to paint or sometimes just to watch. Seeing their faces and reactions to putting paint on paper was amazing. Quite a surreal experience to be sitting painting with a group of children while they leave the AK47s to rest against the wall beside you and in some cases they started to paint their guns!

Art class in the Afar!

Overall an unforgettable experience made so by an amazing, friendly, welcoming community of people in a very remote beautiful village in Ethiopia. 

From Auckland to Afar

After about 2 hours sleep a taxi driver who'd been knocking at the door over almost an hour finally woke us. Well he woke someone else who let him in to wake us. A quick taxi ride to the airport and the 40 hour trip from Auckland to Dublin started. 40 hours because I choose cheapest flight I could find. My plans had changed, instead of spending a year in New Zealand I was returning to Europe to start a new adventure. A few days in London, almost a month in Ireland, a road trip to Munich via Brussels, a flight back to London and then a flight to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

I arrived in Addis with no idea what to expect. I hadn't really had time to plan or think about this trip. The month in New Zealand was full on traveling combined with the World Cup and then the month in Europe was similar due to me working. Addis is a pretty rough city, from what I saw and heard people had no problems robbing people in daylight on the street. I was staying on Bole road which is in the posh part of town.

Construction on Bole Road in Addis Ababa

Rwanda Street in Addis Ababa

After a night in Addis we started our journey to the Afar. Anna had already spent the past 3 weeks there and retuned to Addis to meet me. The Afar region is recognized as being the hottest inhabitable place on earth. They're aren't any buses that go to the village we would be staying in so getting there without hiring a private car was going to be a challenge.

View from a taxi in Addis Ababa

First we had to get to the bus station in Addis, we took a taxi yet it took over an hour to get there. The traffic and the roads in Addis are particularly bad. Once we arrived at the station it was chaotic, people shouting everywhere, buses blocking other buses from moving, petrol fumes and lots of noise. Eventually we were directed to the bus we needed to get to Nazareth, the first stop on our journey. We were assured that there were seats, that the bus was leaving and that it was going to Nazaret but when we got on we quickly discovered there were no seats and the bus was already seriously overcrowded. We managed to jump out the backdoor just as the bus was driving away. We quickly found another bus also going to Nazaret that still had some seats. A few hours later after a rollercoaster style journey we arrived in Nazaret. From here we need to get a bus to Awash. Once again the bus station was in complete chaos, a very different and more intense kind of chaos that I've ever experienced even in Asia or Latin America. When I say bus station I am using the term lightly, what I really mean is a field filled with busses and people. Once again people are shouting erratically and rushing to help us find our bus and eventually we do. While we wait for the bus to fill we get talking to a bus driver of another bus also going to Awash. He's a safari tour guide during the high season and a bus driver in low season. He speaks good English and explains how the busses work. The bus we are sitting on will leave when its full, then his bus is next in the queue, once its full he'll leave and the next in line waits for passengers. His bus is a bigger bus that is slower but is more comfortable so some people are choosing his over our bus. Problem is you don't know when it will leave! So while it looks like complete and utter chaos its actually more like ordered chaos.

Once our bus was full and ready to go our bus driver wasn't feeling well so we are left waiting, as are all the other buses. The guy who speaks English asks if we can drive and if one of us would be willing to drive the bus once we get out of town. At first I thought he was joking but I soon realize he is serious. As you can imagine we both say no, although it would make for an interesting blog post there's so many reasons why it would be a bad idea. We suspect the reason the bus driver is ill is due to khat. Since arriving in Ethiopia I've observed many bus drivers, taxi drivers and random people on the street chewing green leaves. It looks somewhat similar to chewing coca leaves in South America expect these leaves are an amphetamine-like stimulant said to cause excitement, loss of appetite and euphoria. While in some countries it is illegal and classified as a narcotic it is officially legal in Ethiopia.

Eventually the driver feels well enough to drive so we're on the road and about 5 minutes into the journey he produces a bag of leaves and starts chewing. Driving in Ethiopia is crazy, crazier than anything I've ever seen before. Crazier than motorbikes in Vietnam, tuk-tuks in Thailand or taxis in Bolivia. Regularly we encountered a car overtaking a bus thats overtaking a mini bus thats overtaking a truck all while facing oncoming traffic that is forced off the road to narrowly avoid an accident. I counted over 7 accidents along the road to Awash, and these were serious accidents  invoking overturned trucks or busses. We made it to Awash in with any serious incident, a few police checkpoints (one that the driver ignored so we were chased down by the police and they argued for about 10 minutes before letting him go), some off road driving to drive on a road that was closed and avoid the diversion that was in place and a few near misses with oncoming traffic. Turns out the bus was continuing to Awash Arba which is the closest town to the village we are taking to reach. We arrived in Awash Arba after dark so we quickly checked out the two hotels in town. The first had cheap rooms but the toilets and bucket showers were outside. We decided to try the "fancy" hotel close by. They had ensuite rooms so we said we'd take one. They were correct in saying they had ensuite rooms but the toilet didn't have any water in it nor did the cistern or did the taps or the shower. We complained and got moved to another room that had some water, i say some because it was just a very small trickle from the tap.

The next morning we made a few phone calls and talked to some people and eventually managed to hitch a ride to the village. After a few hours driving off-road we arrived at Yoreen.

Yoreen village in the Afar

Caution Wide Load

One night around 10pm we came across a 4x4 with some flashing lights and a "Wide Load" sign. Following closely behind was a truck carrying a house. I'm guessing this maybe fairly common in New Zealand but we found it unusual. The quality of the photos isn't great but you can make out that its a house thats just passed us on the road.

Caution Wide Load - House approaching!

Did a house just pass us?

Christchurch

After a week on the South Island we made our way back to Picton for the ferry to Wellington. En route we stopped off in Christchurch for a few hours, the city was deserted. The city centre was devastated by the earth quake in February and most of the area is still blocked off.
Some areas of the city had very visible evidence of the earthquake, others had small reminders such as repaired cracks in the walls of buildings and other parts remained untouched. Throughout all of the city there was one constant reminder that something bad had happened and this was the lack of people. Everywhere was deserted. Empty shops, empty restaurants, empty car parks.

A deserted car park in Christchurch

On the outskirts of town away from the red zone we came across a small shopping centre. Out of approximately 20 stores only one remained open this was a small Dominos Pizza takeaway. The rest of the buildings in the complex had cracks on the walls, in some cases you could see the foundations of the buildings. As well as this the car park was destroy by cracks in the ground.

Earthquake damage in Christchurch

Racing the Luge at Queenstown

Queenstown was not what I was expecting, in my mind I had envisaged a big city but it was infact a small town. A great small town, perhaps its size is something that makes it so good.

View of Queenstown from the Skyline Gondola

There is so much to do here too. We were there in mid September and the ski season was still going. Combined with there were lots of mountain bikers around and Queenstown is also the site of the first bungee jump in the world. We declined on the bungee instead we took the Skyline Gondola and did the Luge. 

Luge Track at Queenstown

The luge is a 3 wheeled cart that you race down the hill on a cart designed specifically for it. It looks a bit tame and family oriented in their advertisements but its actually a lot of fun and you can go quite fast.

Luge Karts at Queenstown

Once you get to the bottom you take a ski lift back to the top and start again. They have intermediate and advanced tracks so you have plenty of opportunities for racing. We met an English guy in the queue who was traveling alone and the 3 of us ended up racing for the afternoon in the slippery wet conditions.

Race Day at the Luge!

Monster Trucks near Queenstown

On our way to Queenstown we came across a place that had monster trucks that you could drive. We thought this sounded like fun so we stopped to take a look. Sadly they were carrying out repairs on all bar one of the trucks. The one that wasn't being serviced as an old school bus but the lady advised us that it was very very slow and that we'd probably be bored. This monster truck was intended for families.

School Bus Monster Truck

School Bully

It was unfortunate that the other ones were being serviced as they looked like lots of fun especially as their wheels were almost the same height as our camper van!

Hiace versus Monster Truck

Quad Biking on the South Island

After the Irish game we made our way south to Wellington and took the ferry to the South Island. Everyone had told us that we'd have difficulty getting the ferry because everything would be booked out because of the Rugby World Cup but this turned out not to be the case. This was the same with renting the camper van, I think they overestimated the amount of people that would be visiting or else everyone assumed everything would be booked out so no one actually tried to book anything. We spent some time around Nelson, a sunny spot in the north of the South Island.

Sunny Nelson!

We headed south then to the Franz Josef glazier. Here we planned to do another helicopter ride this time with a snow landing on the glacier. Unfortunately it was very cloudy which meant it wasn't worth doing it as visibility was extremely poor. Instead we did a quad bike tour. Things were a little more strict here compared to Quad Biking in Bolivia, if you turned the bike over or crashed into the instructor you would receive a fine. The terrain varied greatly and was considerably more difficult than that in Bolivia. The result was you didn't have time for messing around or racing.

Quad Biking in New Zealand

The trip really showed what quad bikes are capable of, some of the water crossings were quite deep and some of the kills steep but the bikes had no problems especially when you put them into 4-wheel drive. The highlight of the trip for me was the river crossing. The photo doesn't really do it justice but the current was very strong, so much so that you could feel it pushing against the bike.

River Crossing on a Quad Bike

Finally to finish the day we had to clean the bikes and the overalls. They had a quick way of doing this!

Free Shower Included

Meeting Paul O'Connell

After our trip up North we went South to New Plymouth for the first Irish game in the Rugby World Cup. We arrived the day before the game and realised that most people had the same idea of us. Even though overnight parking and camping is illegal almost all car parks in New Plymouth were full with Irish camper vans. We were struggling to find somewhere to park up for the night until a random Irish guy came over to us when we were stopped at the traffic lights and told us of a place they had parked. It was the car park for an aquatic centre only a few minutes walk from the town centre. Perfect location, public toilets in the car park and hot showers in the aquatic centre. 


New Plymouth was full of Irish fans, everywhere there were people dressed in green and the two Irish bars in town were full from opening until closing. It rained and rained the day of the game and throughout the game itself but this didn't stop the Irish fans coming out. There were some USA supporters around as well although they were seriously outnumbered.

Green Army

The game itself wasn't the best but there was a great atmosphere around the stadium and everyone was enjoying themselves. The organisation of the event was excellent and everything worked as planned and without any problems. 

The rain wouldn't stay away

A few hours after the game we met Paul O'Connell in a car park. He passed passed by us on his way to the nearby gym and decided to come over to chat. He stayed for about a half hour talking, laughing and joking with everyone. 

Paul O'Connell with the group

We even got him to take our photo. This had been a running joke for most of the day but we never thought we'd end up asking Paul O'Connell. Some of the other fans didn't get the joke but luckily he did. It probably would have been better had we got a photo of us with him or sign our jerseys but possibly not as humorous.

The one Paul O'Connell took!

Bay of Islands by boat and helicopter

We planned on doing a speed boat trip around the Bay of Islands as it had been well recommended. We had paid and booked the trip but they called us to say that the skipper had called in sick. We needed to get south for the Irish game so we didn't have time to wait another day. As an alternative we decided to hire our own boat and do a short tour of the islands.

Alternative to a jet boat

This was fun even if a little slow but after it we felt that we hadn't really seen the islands nor the hole in the rock. We'd never been in a helicopter before either so a 20 minute helicopter ride around the islands seemed like a good option. 

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

View from the back seat

The 20 minute ride took us around the islands and our pilot give a brief history of the islands and the area in general. We did a loop around the islands going out as far as the hole in the rock and then returning.

Hole in the Rock

Aerial view of the Bay of Islands

HEALTH WARNING - Collection of shellfish not recommended

The next day while traveling further north we stopped at another beach. Here we met some locals who were collecting shellfish. Friendly as all kiwis are they came over and started talking to us. They showed us what they were collecting, from where and explained how we should cook them. It was lunch time so we decided we'd collect some and cook them as well.

Fresh from the sea

We cooked them in boiling water with some garlic, onion and chili and served with some bread and lime. They tasted great, it was only later that we noticed a nearby sign advising against collecting the shellfish.

Health Warning

Luckily we didn't experience any health problems although I figure the locals wouldn't be eating them if there were problems. The sign looked to have been there a while so it may have been from an earlier time when there were problems.

Beach front property on wheels

After stocking up on food supplies we decided to head north in our new home on wheels. I can see why so many people go camping in New Zealand. Everything about the country promotes camping, great roads, great landscapes, clean public toilets, lots of picnic areas and lots of places for camping, some expensive, some cheap and some free.

New Zealand - perfect for camping

We spend our first night in a Department of Conservation campsite on our way to the Bay of Islands. We arrived after dark so we had a brief conversation with the guy running the place. We just parked up and slept after a long day of driving and sight seeing. The next morning we awoke to the sound of the waves and an amazing sea view with a deserted beach.

deserted beach

The Internet is closed for Winter

You got to have teeth

This is the dress code from Takapuna Bar in Auckland, New Zealand.

And you got to have Teeth

My mate Dave has a camper for sale eh!

After almost a year in Latin America I took a flight from Santiago de Chile to Auckland in New Zealand. I almost missed this flight due to snow on the roads between Argentina and Chile. My bus was cancelled so I ended up having to fly to Uruguay to get a connecting flight to Chile. The plan for NZ was to spend a month traveling around in a camper van watching some of the rugby and seeing some of New Zealand. It was strange to be back in an English speaking country although it did take a short while to learn kiwi. Here's a quick lesson: finish almost every sentence with 'eh!', call everyone 'bro' and use the phrase 'sweet as, bro' as much as possible.

Auckland City Skyline

We had free use of a friends camper van, the only problem was it didn't start. We found a mechanic who got it started and performed the Warrenty Of Fittness. The WOF is the New Zealand equivalent of the NCT. Not surprisingly it failed, 2 small problems that would take time and money to fix. The mechanic was advising us not to go ahead with the repairs saying that we'd be wasting money as we couldn't trust it and we could end up spending more and more money on it. He seemed rather negative considering we'd be paying him to do this work. We thought this a little odd and even joked that he was probably trying to sell a camper van.


We decided to take some time to consider our options, collect the van and maybe even find a different mechanic. As we were about to leave the garage he told us that his friend Dave had a camper van for sale and that it would be perfect for us! Later that day we passed a camper van rental place in the city center. We decided to venture in and see if they had any cancellations. Everyone had told us that there was no way we'd be able to rent anything due to the world cup. Surprisingly they had one available that we could take the next day. Only downside is that they spray paint all of their campers with graffiti so each has an individual design. This I could have done without.

Escape Rentals Camper